


Christmas in Detroit

by madameyuki



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, One Shot, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 13:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13928394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madameyuki/pseuds/madameyuki
Summary: Phichit does his best to keep Yuuri's spirits up when he gets hurt during training.I have literally never written a one-shot before this! Written as Christmas gift for my dear friend, Kayleen.





	Christmas in Detroit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kayleen](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kayleen).



> I'm posting this from mobile and will fix formatting errors later!

“Please put me down, it’s just a sprained ankle.”

After a quite spectacular fall coming out of a jump, Phichit had insisted on carrying Yuuri from the side of the rink to the locker room. Yuuri tried and completely failed not to look totally embarrassed as his friend deposited him gently on a bench. The cheerful Thai boy simply grinned down at him while Yuuri started to unlace his skates. It had been a long, grueling morning of practice. Yuuri decided that it would be the day he’d perfect his triple flip and had drilled it over and over, still going well after the other skaters, including Phichit, had decided to call it quits. A small group had lingered in the stands to watch, muttering not quite quietly enough amongst themselves about his skating. His approach took him right past them, close enough to hear and break his concentration, causing him to under-rotate and flub the landing. 

Phichit hissed with sympathy as Yuuri peeled off his sock. The ankle he’d landed on was already swelling impressively. The pair’s coach, Celestino, came rushing through the door with one of their medics to check on him. It was indeed a sprain, not too bad but bad enough that Yuuri was banned from training for at least a week. They put him in a brace and ordered him home. Phichit couldn’t help but notice the crestfallen expression on his friend’s face as he assisted him down the hall to their dorm room, arm looped around underneath Yuuri’s so the other could lean on him. Even before his fall, Phichit had noticed Yuuri becoming progressively more withdrawn as they neared the end of December. He thought that might be why Yuuri had thrown himself so fully into practice as of late. It was always hard to be so far away from home, the two of them talked about it often, but it got worse around those times of year where everyone around them was so focused on family. 

“Do you need anything?” Phichit asked, watching Yuuri get settled on his bed. Yuuri only shook his head, hugging a pillow to his chest. “It's only a week Yuuri. We haven't even started choreographing our programs yet.”

“I want to qualify for the Grand Prix Final this year,” Yuuri replied softly, squeezing the pillow tighter in his arms.

We all do, Phichit thought, but didn’t dare say it aloud. He knew that Yuuri could be a pretty anxious guy. His friend was also both talented and dedicated and deserved all the success he was sure was coming to him.

“How about I go get us something to eat and we can spend the night brainstorming ideas for our programs?” Phichit offered. The tension in Yuuri’s limbs lessened slightly, barely noticable. He knew that the only thing that would depress Yuuri more when he was missing a week’s worth of training would be being completely removed from the skating world until he was allowed back on the ice. Yuuri replied with a slight nod. Phichit gave him one of his best cheerful grins in return.

***

Surrounded by empty takeout containers and engrossed in clip after clip of potential song selections, Yuuri had started to feel a little less sorry for himself. But the night wore on and painkillers wore off, the ache in his ankle only serving to remind him of his utter failure to land the jump he had been practicing all day. In a quiet moment between songs he played the moment over and over in his mind, trying to figure out what went wrong. It was as if the moment had been captured perfectly in his memory. One advantage to his high stamina meant that he usually had the ice to himself near the end of the day. His approach had been clean, gathering the right amount of speed for the rotations he needed…

“Yuuri? You okay?”

Phichit’s voice brought Yuuri swimming back to reality. 

“Yeah, yeah. Just tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.”

Phichit agreed and shuffled around him to clean up while Yuuri pulled himself up to find some pajamas. By the time he laid his head on his pillow, the scene was back; the rink flashed by on the insides of his eyelids, the rush of air a silent whisper in his ears. His roommate settled quickly as usual; Yuuri had a running theory that being so cheerful all the time burned a lot of energy. In his mind’s eye Yuuri jumped off the back inside edge of his skate. Everything had felt right, what went wrong?

The scene started over. He tried to tune it out and instead focus on the soft, regular breathing coming from across the room. He would never admit it to Phichit, but Yuuri often would breath along with him at night when his anxiety kept him awake as it did now. Even with the majority of his focus on the steady inhale and exhale of his lungs, Yuuri still had the impact of his landing jarring through the back of his mind. He lay awake for hours trying to puzzle out the triple flip and finally sometime in the early morning drifted off to sleep. 

***

Phichit slipped out of the room as quietly as he could manage when he got up to train in the morning. Yuuri didn’t look like he would be up anytime soon and he needed the rest anyway. The morning’s work was productive, but he couldn’t help worrying about how his friend was holding up. With permission from Celestino, Phichit took an extended lunch break and headed back to the room to check in. Yuuri was awake by then, looking very sullen on his bed with his laptop open in front of him. Phichit threw himself down next to him, eliciting a surprised squeak from the other.

“Whatcha doing there Yuuri?” he asked, peering at the screen. Yuuri glanced away almost guiltily. There was a paused video of a skater pulled up and the search bar had the term ‘triple flip’ in it. “Hey you’ll figure it out. You probably just pushed yourself too much and were exhausted when you missed that landing.”

“Yeah,” came the quiet response. 

It was all he could do to get a little bit of lunch into Yuuri before Phichit had to head back to the rink. As he closed the door behind him, the Christmas decorations strung all along the halls caught his attention and gave him an idea. Phichit pulled his phone from his pocket and brought up the web search with a grin.

***

Yuuri frowned at the clock on his phone. Phichit was usually back by now, practice had ended nearly 45 minutes ago. His mood had improved a little after going to take a hot shower once he had finally brought himself to get out of bed. Then he had made himself some tea and put on an old movie, content with distracting his mind for awhile.

The movie was about two thirds of the way over when the door finally opened, admitting Phichit amidst a cloud of delicious smells. Yuuri looked up at him, confused at the plastic bags dangling from the Thai boy’s arms. It took him a moment to pick out the scent of fried chicken. 

“What’s all this about?” Yuuri asked as his roommate started fishing container after container of food from his KFC bags, laying out mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, coleslaw, and of course, chicken. 

“I know you’re bummed about your ankle and Christmas is coming up, so I thought I’d cheer you up and bring a little bit of home to you. So I got us KFC!” Phichit explained, looking very proud of himself. Yuuri stared blankly at him for a few seconds before a smile twisted his lips. He started to chuckle, then after a few seconds had collapsed into full on laughter. Phichit’s face fell. “Is that not right? Google said KFC is a big thing in Japan around Christmas…”

Yuuri put a hand on Phichit’s shoulder, willing himself to stop laughing. There were tears in his eyes, both from laughing and because he was so genuinely touched at what Phichit had done for him.

“It is absolutely right. Thanks Phichit, this is great,” he said, looking at the spread before them. “Though I’m going to have train extra hard once I’m healed after a meal like this.”

“You were going to anyway,” Phichit said matter of factly, getting up to get plates and silverware. “Merry Christmas Yuuri.”

Yuuri held up the chicken leg he had just grabbed to toast the best roommate he could ask for.

“Merry Christmas Phichit.”


End file.
